Hopping between Random Locations: Spectrum and Instanton

Euclidean random matrices appear in a broad class of physical problems involving disorder. The problem of determining their spectra can be mapped, using the replica method, into the study of a scalar field theory with an interaction of the type e^(psi^2). We apply the instanton method to study their spectral tails.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 2 postscript figure

Ferromagnetic resonance study of sputtered Co|Ni multilayers

We report on room temperature ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) studies of [$t$ Co$|2t$ Ni]$\times$N sputtered films, where $0.1 \leq t \leq 0.6$ nm. Two series of films were investigated: films with same number of Co$|$Ni bilayer repeats (N=12), and samples in which the overall magnetic layer thickness is kept constant at 3.6 nm (N=1.2/$t$). The FMR measurements were conducted with a high frequency broadband coplanar waveguide up to 50 GHz using a flip-chip method. The resonance field and the full width at half maximum were measured as a function of frequency for the field in-plane and field normal to the plane, and as a function of angle to the plane for several frequencies. For both sets of films, we find evidence for the presence of first and second order anisotropy constants, $K_1$ and $K_2$. The anisotropy constants are strongly dependent on the thickness $t$, and to a lesser extent on the total thickness of the magnetic multilayer. The Land\'e g-factor increases with decreasing $t$ and is practically independent of the multilayer thickness. The magnetic damping parameter $\alpha$, estimated from the linear dependence of the linewidth, $\triangle H$, on frequency, in the field in-plane geometry, increases with decreasing $t$. This behaviour is attributed to an enhancement of spin-orbit interactions with $t$ decreasing and in thinner films, to a spin-pumping contribution to the damping.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Solar neutrino-electron scattering as background limitation for double beta decay

The background on double beta decay searches due to elastic electron scattering of solar neutrinos of all double beta emitters with Q-value larger than 2 MeV is calculated, taking into account survival probability and flux uncertainties of solar neutrinos. This work determines the background level to be [1-2]E-7 counts /keV/kg/yr, depending on the precise Q-value of the double beta emitter. It is also shown that the background level increases dramatically if going to lower Q-values. Furthermore, studies are done for various detector systems under consideration for next generation experiments. It was found that experiments based on loaded liquid scintillator have to expect a higher background. Within the given nuclear matrix element uncertainties any approach exploring the normal hierarchy has to face this irreducible background, which is a limitation on the minimal achievable background for purely calorimetric approaches. Large scale liquid scintillator experiments might encounter this problem already while exploring the inverted hierarchy. Potential caveats by using more sophisticated experimental setups are also discussed

Three Dimensional N=2 Supersymmetry on the Lattice

We show how 3-dimensional, N=2 supersymmetric theories, including super QCD with matter fields, can be put on the lattice with existing techniques, in a way which will recover supersymmetry in the small lattice spacing limit. Residual supersymmetry breaking effects are suppressed in the small lattice spacing limit by at least one power of the lattice spacing a.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, typo corrected, reference adde

Balance-of-Powers Arguments and the Structural Constitution

Balance-of-powers arguments are ubiquitous in judicial opinions and academic articles that address separation-of-powers disputes over the president\u27s removal authority, power to disregard statutes, authority to conduct foreign wars, and much else. However, the concept of the balance of powers has never received a satisfactory theoretical treatment. This Essay examines possible theories of the balance of powers and rejects them all as unworkable and normatively questionable. Judges and scholars should abandon the balance-of-powers metaphor and instead address directly whether bureaucratic innovation is likely to improve policy outcomes

The NEWMEDS rodent touchscreen test battery for cognition relevant to schizophrenia.

RATIONALE: The NEWMEDS initiative (Novel Methods leading to New Medications in Depression and Schizophrenia, http://www.newmeds-europe.com ) is a large industrial-academic collaborative project aimed at developing new methods for drug discovery for schizophrenia. As part of this project, Work package 2 (WP02) has developed and validated a comprehensive battery of novel touchscreen tasks for rats and mice for assessing cognitive domains relevant to schizophrenia. OBJECTIVES: This article provides a review of the touchscreen battery of tasks for rats and mice for assessing cognitive domains relevant to schizophrenia and highlights validation data presented in several primary articles in this issue and elsewhere. METHODS: The battery consists of the five-choice serial reaction time task and a novel rodent continuous performance task for measuring attention, a three-stimulus visual reversal and the serial visual reversal task for measuring cognitive flexibility, novel non-matching to sample-based tasks for measuring spatial working memory and paired-associates learning for measuring long-term memory. RESULTS: The rodent (i.e. both rats and mice) touchscreen operant chamber and battery has high translational value across species due to its emphasis on construct as well as face validity. In addition, it offers cognitive profiling of models of diseases with cognitive symptoms (not limited to schizophrenia) through a battery approach, whereby multiple cognitive constructs can be measured using the same apparatus, enabling comparisons of performance across tasks. CONCLUSION: This battery of tests constitutes an extensive tool package for both model characterisation and pre-clinical drug discovery.This work was supported by the Innovative Medicine Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 115008 of which resources are composed of EFPIA in-kind contribution and financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013). The authors thank Charlotte Oomen for valuable comments on the manuscript.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4007-

Wolves in the Wolds: Late Capitalism, the English Eerie, and the Wyrd Case of ‘Old Stinker’ the Hull Werewolf

In this article, I depart from the earlier opinions of Emily Gerard, Sabine Baring-Gould, and others, who explained the disappearance of the werewolf in folklore as following the extinction of the wolf. I argue instead that British literature is distinctive in representing a history of werewolf sightings in places in Britain where there were once wolves. I draw on the idea of absence, manifestations of the English eerie, and the turbulence of England in the era of late capitalism to illuminate my analysis of the representation of contemporary werewolf sightingsPeer reviewe

Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identification

Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed area-based conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is whether the sample of tracked animals is representative of the wider population. However, it may also be important to track animals in multiple years to capture changes in distribution in response to varying environmental conditions. Using GPS-tracking data from 23 seabird species, we assessed the importance of multi-year sampling for identifying important sites for conservation during the chick-rearing period, when seabirds are most spatially constrained. We found a high degree of spatial overlap among distributions from different years in most species. Multi-year sampling often captured a significantly higher portion of reference distributions (based on all data for a population) than sampling in a single year. However, we estimated that data from a single year would on average miss only 5 % less of the full distribution of a population compared to equal-sized samples collected across three years (min: −0.3 %, max: 17.7 %, n = 23). Our results suggest a key consideration for identifying important sites from tracking data is whether enough individuals were tracked to provide a representative estimate of the population distribution during the sampling period, rather than that tracking necessarily take place in multiple years. By providing an unprecedented multi-species perspective on annual spatial consistency, this work has relevance for the application of tracking data to informing the conservation of seabirds